Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist? | Cindy Foley | TEDxColumbus
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Published 2014-11-26
Cindy Meyers Foley is the Executive Assistant Director and Director of Learning and Experience at the Columbus Museum of Art. Foley worked to reimagine the CMA as a 21st century institution that is transformative, active, and participatory. An institution that impacts the health and growth of the community by cultivating, celebrating and championing creativity. Foley envisioned and led the charge to open the 18,000 sq. ft. Center for Creativity in 2011. In 2013, the museum received the National Medal for Museums in recognition of this work. Foley guest edited and wrote chapters for Intentionality and the Twenty-First-Century Museum, for the summer 2014 Journal of Museum Education.
In 2012, Foley received the Greater Columbus Arts Council Community Arts Partnership award for Arts Educator. She was a keynote speaker for the OAEA (Ohio Art Education Association) 2012 Conference. She is on the Faculty of Harvard University’s Future of Learning Summer Institute.
Foley is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and The Ohio State University. Prior to joining the Museum, she was with the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Wexner Center for the Arts.
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All Comments (21)
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"Art education as a way to cope with the unpredictability of life". Brilliant concept! Thanks so much Cindy.
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I love how she got emotional at the end. This speech was passionately heart-felt and such an important message,
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I'm crying. This is the best thing. Don't kill the ideas and don't kill the light in the eyes of our children. xo
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We really do research EVERYTHING
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The art curriculum at most schools bothers me. You have a bunch of kids working on extremely similar projects with little freedom. The best Art class I ever had was at my middle school watercolour class which was an optional class. The teacher gave us a very general theme like "abstract" and we could do anything with that theme. It gave us a chance to develop ourselves as artists and develop our own styles as well.
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I graduated from art school many years ago and the experience resembles what your talk is about. Since then, I have progressively narrowed my focus on what has been coined as classical realism. Despite my appetite for technical virtuosity with traditional drawing and painting methods, I still utilize my early art lessons. I research, I ask questions, I employ critical thinking, my creative thinking exercises are not limited by discipline or medium and, I manifest ideas. The manifesting of ideas is not the end but rather the means to an end. I think it should be stressed that "Curiosity & Conceptualization" is GROUND WORK. Every project that goes through this ground work should be in support of a singular larger goal if you are to become a "Master Builder".
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4:30 I hear those same statements all the time. I have students who come into class on day one and tell me "I can't draw, I'm not creative". It's those messages they have heard throughout their life that have fostered that belief.
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AMEN! I've told my students this is the difference between an artist who becomes an art teacher vs. someone who picks up art teaching along the way. I LIVE art and I teach art from the artists point of view putting creativity and allowed work time paramount.
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I needed to hear that speech 45 years ago, omg so nailed it!!! This should resonate with every true artist. Thank you
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A great lecture. I spent all of my Art teaching career arguing that Art is the most important subject on school curriculum and that creativity is the highest form of intelligence.
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This spoke so deeply to me. My whole life art was my outlet, more then anything else ever. the safest presents to buy me AT ANY AGE was always art supplies. but because i couldnt replicate the works of the masters my family refused to support me. My art teachers did, I had a piece of my classwork entered into a exhibit in 6th grade which i have kept even to this day but my parents stopped letting me take art classes from then on. it wasnt until my senior year of high school that i ever took another real art class, and in that one i also had a piece entered into an exhibit. i never got to see either, my parents wouldnt let me go. it wasnt until the last 4 years i really took to my art again because i didnt believe i could. now im applying to have photographs of mine entered into a local exhibit and getting everything ready to teach art classes for my community. to this day my family still dont think im an artist, but at least now (with the help of this video) i own who i am. <3 <3
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This method of teaching art aligns with Teaching for Artistic Behavior or TAB. I see this growing more each year and’s I finally jumped on the bandwagon after seeing a TAB Elementary art room in person and I realized it could be done. I hope more art teachers see this video.
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This is the best Ted Talk I have ever heard. A constant reminder that I should express my artistry & teach/guide others to become authentic, creative artists.
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Great talk... Nurturing creativity and innovative thinking is so important! I love how Cindy articulated it. It builds individuality and as she says, new ideas... I teach art in London, and luckily I do it privately and have the freedom to do so without limiting the creative process of the little artists, but encouraging them to bring out their own ideas. Thank you for this talk, Cindy, it’s inspiring. 👏🏽♥️
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Thank you for being an advocate for the mind and thought. Brought me to tears!
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Thank you! Thank you! I totally agree! as an artist/teacher this is such a detrimental reality! Art is not just a canvas and some paint. "Creativity is the Potential for Ideas from Within" as Foley stated. We could learn so much more if we allowed ourselves to pick up a brush and paint "anything!" I teach summer art lessons in my back yard, and I always tell me students that there is no right or wrong in art - that it all comes from within and the courage to try.
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¡ Perfect, I'll use this with my university students (sound, music and engineering ), You are absolutely right, ART education is essential in sensitive people ¡¡Thank you Cindy Foley!!
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What is the difference between “ambiguity” and “confusion?” I was confused by your question - and I’m glad I caught on. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one! And using words to communicate effectively - clearly - “less intellectually” - is what kids need. It is image based. I am a children’s author and once, after I had told one of my stories, a seven year old student came up to me and said, “I wrote a book!” I was totally impressed and asked what his story was about and he told me I asked him further (I also illustrate my books), “So did you draw pictures to go along with your book?” He said, “No. The words make the pictures.” It would do us an immense amount of good if we could learn from what he said. Ambiguity often comes when our words don’t make pictures, but cause confusion.
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Picasso visited one of caves with ancient stone aged art on the walls - when he exited the cave he famously exclaimed "we have learned nothing". This TED talk hits the potential answers to the issues of creativity facing global western acculturused countries employing standardised models of measured progression.
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Artists never get any credit and yet everybody is using it; Art.
